


Broken Wrist, Hurt Feelings

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Broken Bones, Don't copy to another site, Except She’s a Robot but close enough, Found Family, Gen, Making Up, Post-Canon, Protective Siblings, Slice of Life, character injury, siblings arguing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 08:04:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: Sticks and stones (and falls) may break bones (or wrists), but words can still hurt more.





	Broken Wrist, Hurt Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> Once I started writing down this fic, later parts of it just happened without me planning for it but it was an interesting concept so I decided to explore it anyway.

What other people might call “a nuisance” and “not that safe” was perfectly good fun to Tarah and Thayne. This time it was a relatively tame activity by their standards: they were balancing and walking on top of one of the many stone dividers in town. They had wanted to see if they could get on top of one of the buildings, but the tired architecture wasn't quite up to two small bots climbing on it.

Tarah was more focused on what she could see from this high up than what was in front of her. She knew she wasn't going to run out of fence for a while and she trusted her feet well enough to find proper places. But there was litter on the fence she didn't account for as she stepped, which led to her foot sliding out from under her. She lost her balance and fell off with a shout, landing hard on the pavement. She tried to catch herself and felt a strong jolt in her arm as it absorbed the shock.

“Whoa! Sis, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said automatically as Thayne maneuvered himself down from the brick. “Stupid bag.”

It felt like there were bees buzzing inside her arm, especially closer to her hand. That was a weird feeling. Speaking of her hand, it also felt numb. Tarah tried shaking the feeling back into her hand and immediately regretted it when pain shot through her wrist.

It'd probably be fine later, she told herself. She just landed on it funny. After all, she'd been through far worse hardships than falling off a fence.

“I guess that's why the others tell us not to walk on top of the fence like that,” she said as she stood back up.

Thayne shrugged, unfazed since Tarah was acting normally. “Hasn't stopped us before.”

“Yeah, but I guess they're not  _ totally _ crazy.” Subtly but frantically looking for something else to change the subject to before Thayne asked about her arm or tried to get back up on the fence, she noticed the time. (Or rather, how she judged the time based on the sun.) “Come on, it's almost when Galleo likes to head back home.”

“Do you think he would send Benji after us if we were gone long enough?” Thayne asked as he followed her.

“I dunno if Benji can actually fly that far. Besides, if Galleo was that worked up he probably wouldn't want to let go of his ‘tiny baby birb’.”

“Yeah. I wonder how far he can fly…”

* * *

Tarah tentatively tried to lift her axe with both hands.  **Ouch,** yeah, that wasn't happening. Not with the way she jammed her wrist earlier. Maybe she was strong enough now to wield one-handed?

“What're you doing?” Armilly asked not too long later. It didn't look much like Tarah was getting anywhere.

“What does it look like I'm doing? I'm training.”

“With one hand?”

She stopped and looked over at Armilly. “Yeah, what's the deal?”

“Even I mostly use my sword with two hands and I'm bigger than it. It might not be that heavy for me but the blade goes where I want more often.”

“Yeah, well...a katana is a two-handed weapon, but that doesn't stop Orik from using it with one hand!”

“Orik’s partially paralyzed in one arm,” Armilly noted bluntly. “And besides, he said it took years for him to adjust.”

“I guess I'm getting a head start then,” she said with a note of finality. Tarah tried swinging her axe in front of her and promptly ate the dirt. 

Armilly grimaced. “I tried that once when I was little and threw out my shoulder. It wasn't fun.”

Tarah made a soft grunt and picked herself up off the ground. Her wrist already hurt enough, she decided she didn't want to mess up her other arm too.

* * *

Later that evening, Thayne had been almost obsessively flexing and trying to stretch out his wrist. But only his left one, which was a bit odd.

“Is something wrong with your wrist?” Copernica asked after a while.

“It feels weird,” he said, continuing to pull his hand back. “Like it needs to pop but it just won't.” It made a weird creaking noise and he stopped with a wince. Too hard, he'd almost hurt it.

As Orik asked to see Thayne's wrist before he damaged it, Tarah protectively put a hand over her own wrist. The buzzing feeling had long since left, but there was an aching that turned into a sharp pain whenever she touched it or moved her arm wrong.

“I don't feel anything,” Orik said. “Does it hurt when I press?”

Thayne shook his head. “Mm-mm. It just feels funny.”

“How strange.”

Copernica looked up at them. “Wait, aren't you and your sister empathetic to each other? Like, you feel each other's feelings?”

“Yeah, but this feels too strong for it to be from Tarah…” Whenever he felt something from her (or vice versa), it was always a weaker version of the feeling. “It'd hurt really bad if Tarah was the one feeling it.”

Tarah happened to be worrying over her wrist when Thayne said that which led to everyone noticing her. “Okay, so it's a little stiff,” she admitted. She tried flexing it a bit to make a point and hissed in pain. 

So much for brushing it off.

“Can I check it, please?” Galleo asked, holding out a hand.

After a moment, Tarah gave him her arm. “Alright, just...don't be too rough.”

Galleo gently took her arm into his hands, immediately noticing how warm it was to the touch. A clear sign something wasn't right with her arm, had she been made of softer materials it probably would have been swollen. Curious, he felt her wrist and found it to be stiff and immovable, along with her hand. 

Also, the action made Tarah screech out a swear in pain and kick him in the knee. “I told you not to be rough!”

“I wasn't!” Galleo spat back, nursing his knee. “I'm pretty sure you broke your wrist.”

“How long has it been like this, Tarah?” Orik asked. Tarah stalled and avoided answering him.

Thayne had a realization and piped up. “WAIT A SECOND! When you fell earlier, that's when you hurt it!” Tarah nodded at him but remained silent. “Why didn't you say anything?” 

“It wasn't your problem,” she said quietly. “You didn't need to worry about it.”

“I'm your brother, of course it's my problem!” he snapped. “You take on my problems and it's only fair I get to take on yours!”

“It's fine, I didn't think it was a big deal--”

“Tarah, I'm not a baby! I wish you'd stop trying to shield me from everything!” he shouted, trembling. Frustrated, he got up. “And considering how much our childhood sucked bolts, you didn't even do a good job at  _ that _ .”

A gasp from Copernica. "Thayne!"

Orik jumped in. “That was completely uncalled for.”

"...."

“I don't care, I'm leaving! Don't follow me if you want to keep your blood.”

And with that Thayne stormed out of the house, leaving the other five completely baffled. “Uh… should someone go after him?” 

“Didn't you hear what he said? I wanna keep my blood in me.” Armilly said.

“Indeed,” Orik said, briefly pulling a smirk. “In all seriousness, though, we should probably give him some time to cool down.”

“Besides, Tarah still needs her wrist fixed.” The ‘bot in question didn’t say anything, but there were tears silently rolling down her face.

“Yeah, there's a lot of smaller connections that can get messed up if it isn't fixed soon, the wrist is one of those weaker joints that really doesn't like being broken…” Galleo started talking to himself as he fetched tools.

Tarah wasn't really listening to any of this; she was still reeling from Thayne's outburst. Being twins and understanding each other so well meant that they knew exactly what buttons to push to hurt the most. It was something so easy to forget because they hardly ever fought like that…

Was she really that bad of a sister?

She remained just as quiet and oddly compliant while Galleo repaired her wrist and put a brace on it. She investigated it once he was finished, confused. Why a brace instead of putting her plating back?

“Joints need some time to set before you move them again,” he explained. “Sorry, it probably still hurts ‘cause I don't know how to turn off pain receptors without breaking them.” Leave an injury sitting long enough untreated, and the pain would linger for a while after being fixed. Even with prompt aid, joints still took longer to recover anyway. 

“Do you want something for your wrist?”

She nodded quietly. Her wrist wasn't the only thing that hurt, though…

After getting the painkillers, she shuffled off to her room without another word.

* * *

“She's in bed, I believe,” Orik said to Thayne as they came back inside. 

After his outburst, Thayne had gone to the edge of town to be alone for a while. He wasn't consciously thinking about it, but he needed some time to calm back down. Orik found him sitting up in a tree. After some discussion over what had happened, Thayne decided he was ready to go back home and apologize. He only hoped Tarah wouldn't be angry and unforgiving towards him...

He knocked on the door. Sure, it was his room, too, but it didn't hurt to ask before waltzing in. Especially after earlier. “C-can I come in?”

“Mm-hmm.” Tarah was laying on the bed and looking up at the ceiling when he opened the door. She didn't look over at him when Thayne came in.

“I'm sorry, Tarah, I got really mad.” Thayne climbed up onto the bed and sat on the edge. “That wasn’t fair to you. You know what, though…?”

Tarah made a little inquisitive noise and looked over at him.

“If you hadn't been there when we were little, I bet things would've sucked way worse than they did. I'm glad I had you even if things were rough.”

“You think so?” Her voice was a bit wobbly, actually...

“I'd bet my life on it.”

Tarah stared at the ceiling with a really strange expression that Thayne could not get a read on no matter how he tried. “What is it, sis?” he asked.

After a pause Tarah scrunched up her face and said, “I feel really weird…”

“Orik told me you got some strong painkillers for your wrist and they might make you act kinda loopy…”

“Nno… I mean yeah, I think I'm high, but-” The phrase tapered off with a sigh. She was full of emotions she couldn't really describe. “‘m sorry I hid things from you. 'Specially me getting hurt.”

“I wanna support you like you always do for me,” he said. “I know I shouldn't have blown up on you.” There was a pause. “Do you want me to sleep somewhere else tonight?”

Tarah gasped and reached out for him. “Nooo! Don’ go again…s'pport me.”

“Okay, I'll stay...” He scooted a bit closer and then got clumsily pulled into a hug by Tarah. “Careful, your wrist needs to set!”

“That's what the brace is for, silly,” she mumbled. It still wasn't a good idea to be reckless with it, but Tarah wasn't exactly thinking at her clearest at the moment. After Thayne squirmed around enough for her to get the message, Tarah let him go and allowed him to settle in more comfortably.

“I love you, Thayne.” It was all but a whisper, but it was there.

“I love you too, Tarah.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I wasn't expecting Thayne to snap like that. He's rather mild-mannered but there's a lot of feelings down in there...


End file.
